President William Ruto has directed the Ministries of Transport and Energy to cancel the ongoing deals proposed by the Adani Group to take over the country’s infrastructure in the energy and aviation sectors.
During his State of the Nation Address on Thursday, the president said the decision was attributed to credible evidence from the relevant agencies.
He noted that the ongoing deals with the Adani Group could not continue with such insurmountable evidence.
The United States government charged Gautam Adani, chair of Indian conglomerate Adani Group for allegedly paying Ksh.30 billion in bribes to the Indian government to obtain solar energy supply contracts.
“In the face of undisputed evidence or credible information on corruption, I will not hesitate to take action…”
“Based on new information provided by our investigative agencies and partner nations – that the procuring agencies within the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum immediately cancel the ongoing procurement process for the JKIA Expansion Public Private Partnership transaction, as well as the recently concluded KETRACO transmission line Public Private Partnership contract, and immediately commence the process of onboarding alternative partners,” said Ruto.
Adani had proposed a Ksh.260 billion deal to renovate the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) for a 30-year period and provide Ksh.95 billion to develop the country’s transmission lines, all under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.
The president’s remarks contravened Energy CS Opiyo Wandayi who earlier maintained that the Kenya-Adani would still continue amid the ongoing allegations.
“We had no knowledge of any other adverse matters that could have come to light and therefore we are proceeding on the basis of the outcome of the rigorous due diligence conducted by the contracting authority in line with the law,” Opiyo told the Parliamentary Energy Committee on Thursday.
“We can’t tell because they are not related to this project and therefore we will be engaging in speculation. There has been no case of bribery or corruption in as far as this PIP of Adani is concerned,” he added.
